Five Bruins-centric thoughts on the World Cup of Hockey

By Joe Haggerty

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Five Bruins-centric thoughts on the World Cup of Hockey

With the first weekend of the World Cup of Hockey in the books, there's plenty to dissect and analyze. Clearly the North American young guns have become the talk of the tournament with their speed, skill and dominant performances against older and more established teams, and Team USA shoowed a shocking, stunning level of disinterest in dropping its first game to a ragtag group of players making up Team Europe.

So, with all that in mind, here are a few Bruins-centric tourney thoughts:

A perfect center for Marchand and Bergeron

Boy, does that line look like something close to perfection. The trio combined for the first three goals in Team Canada’s win over the Czech Republic, and each of them had a hand in a backbreaking goal right in the waning seconds of the second period. It should make Bruins fans wonder what might be possible when David Backes slots in with Bergeron and Marchand at times this season, but it should also make everybody scratch their heads about how Brett Connolly could have struggled so much offensively playing right wing with Bergeron and Marchand last year. Clearly it’s tough to bust in on an established pair who've been together for six years, like Bergeron and Marchand, but Crosby seems to be doing just fine with Team Canada right now. It’s also encouraging for Bruins fans to see Bergeron and Marchand hitting the ground running at something approaching full speed despite the World Cup sort of qualifying as energetic extra hockey.

Stay healthy!

Speaking of Bergeron, the tournament can’t end soon enough from a Bruins perspective, with five key players participating in the best-of-the-best series that is sure to ramp up in intensity as it goes along. In the game between Canada and the Czech Republic over the weekend, David Pastrnak caught Bergeron with his head down and lit up his Bruins teammate with a healthy body check. It was surprising to see, given that it was teammate-on-teammate crime, but it was also a reminder that some teams are going to be heavily disappointed when key players come back injured, like Tyler Seguin out with a fracture in his heel that sounds like a nagging injury. If the Bruins lost Bergeron, Marchand, Pastrnak, Chara or Tuukka Rask for any significant amount of time with a World Cup-borne injury, it would be disastrous for a team that doesn’t have a lot of margin for error this season.

Showing his age

Chara looked every bit his 39 years -- slow on his skates and perpetually behind the play -- during the pre-tournament games for Team Europe, and that was doubly true in a tune-up game against the young, fast and dangerous Team North America. So there is some cause to be alarmed that Chara could be an even bigger shell of his former self this season as he turns 40, but at least the Bruins captain bounced back with a decent showing in their upset win over Team USA. One caveat: Team USA seemed to choose grit and physicality when building their roster, and those are the bigger, slower teams against whom Chara can still function at his best. The sight of Chara chugging along behind the puck trying desperately to catch up to North America’s young, speedy attackers was a sobering one for Bruins fans, though Chara isn't the only one who looks slow during this eye-opening tournament. The NHL is a young man’s game built for speed and what Don Sweeney calls “hard skill”, and they have plenty of both while humbling other teams on the frozen sheet.

The cost is rising

The price continues to go up for Brad Marchand as he piles up the offense, and plays a large role on the best forward line in the entire tournament with Patrice Bergeron and Sidney Crosby. It was a profile-raiser simply to be on Team Canada’s roster in the first place, and performing at such a high level against the best players in the world gives you an idea of what kind of season No. 63 could put together this year. The 28-year-old B’s agitator might not score 37 goals again this season, but every indication is that he’s going to have another banner campaign in his contract walk year. That will cost the Bruins a ton of money beyond what they’re already on the hook for if they can’t sign him once he’s back from the World Cup tournament.

Underutilized

Tuukka Rask has been stuck behind Pekka Rinne, who was worked hard for four goals in the loss to North America after a subpar performance against Finland during the pre-tournament games either. One would have thought Rask might get a chance in the third period while North America was skating circles around Finland, but instead it was more Rinne behind a porous defense. It’s looking more and more like it’s going to take some kind of miraculous act for the Bruins goalie to get into the tournament, and get in a little game action prior to reporting to the Bruins later this month.